Slotted wrench socket



April 111, 1950 w. VIETS 2,503,364

SLOTTED WRENCH SOCKET Filed March 12, 1948 INVENTOR; WALTER V/ETS, BY

Patented Apr. 11, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SLOTTED WRENCH SOCKET Walter Viets, St. Louis, Mo.

Application March 12, 1948, Serial No. 14,515

2 Claims.

This invention relates to slotted wrench sockets, and more particularly to an improved construction of sockets of side open type, susceptible of lateral application to and removal from many types of fluid connections equipped with polygonal, usually hexagonal fittings. The sockets embodying the present improvements are intended principally for use with end wrenches, socket wrenches and the like, as an adjunctive tool.

There have appeared in the trade over a period of years a number of socket elements for rotative actuation of square or hexagonal threaded fittings, and adapted for use either as separate tools, or adjunctively to ratohed wrenches, end wrenches and the like. All of such sockets which are known to this applicant, possess certain common shortcomings, among which may be mentioned the inability of the tool to be applied laterally to a tube, bolt or rod connected to a hexagonal fitting for example, or if formed for this mode of usage, those units heretofore known exhibit a marked tendency to distortion in use, by reason of their incompletely circular or polygonal sections. Further, all such devices known or which have thus far appeared in trade, exhibit a tendency, irrespective of any deformation of the tool, to slip about the fitting, nut or other element engaged by the tool, and similarly to slip within the wrench head. The present invention accordingly has as a major objective, the construction of a socket such as to obviate the difliculties noted, and yet such as to permit its lateral application over the work.

A further object of the invention is attained in an improved shaping of a socket element of the general type noted so as to enhance its adaptability for usage and facility for reaching and successively actuating nuts, fittings and the like which are located in difficultly accessible locations.

A still further and important objective of the invention is attained in an improved construction of both internal and external polygonal (such as hexagonal) conformities, such as nut or wrench seats, of the socket.

The foregoing and numerous other objectives will more clearly appear and be more fully revealed from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment. of the improvements, particularly when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an open side socket element embodying the present improvements, and as viewed from the slotted side of the element;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the socket of Fig. l, but as viewed from the closed side thereof;

Fig. 3 is an end view of the upper or outer end of the socket;

Fig. i is an end view of the inner or lower end of the socket element, and

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 of Fig. 1, to which view is added in dotted lines, certain conventional structure indicative of the advantages of the tool in reaching a nut or fitting in a location which is diflicult of access.

Referring now by characters of reference to the drawing, the socket is preferably formed of a single piece of rigid metal, and with greatest economies is made of ferrous metal, the element as a whole being generally indicated at NJ. The socket is produced at low cost, for the most part or entirely in an automatic screw machine, although certain operations are most advantageously effected by broaching. Other production methods, such as casting, may be used in making lower cost, light duty units.

The socket is provided with a bore H, which bore is coaxial and extends through, from end to end of the socket unit Ill. The bore is circular in section over approximately two-thirds of the length thereof, from the outer end l2 toward the inner end 13, the final one-third in the example shown, being given a polygonal, shown as hexagonal, internal conformity generall ndicated at It, and the individual faces of which are indicated at l 5. The relation of the several faces i5 is such that they define, although incompletely, a regular polygon, although two of the sides, if this nut seat be hexagonal, are missing by reason, of the location and dimension of the side opening it. It should, however, be noted as a distinct preference, that the width of the opening it is held to a maximum such that the internal hexagonal conformity in the example shown includes five full corners or apices, these being indicated at 11.

Externally of the outermost half of the shell of metal constituting the open side socket, the element It is formed to provide a male hexagon portion the faces of which are indicated at 20. This external hexagonal conformity or wrench seat consists, by reason of the width of the openmg 16, of something more than five full faces 20. What would normally be the sixth such face is only partially interrupted in the preferred construction, in which partial face areas 21 are caused to remain and are preferably of such width as to be engaged effectively by the jaw face of an end or ratchet wrench. It will be seen as characterizing the preferred form shown, that the partial hexagonal conformity or nut seat M is so formed in the socket element that the medians of its several faces. lie in the same radial planes as the apices between adjacent faces 20 of the exterior hexagonal portion. Thus the two polygonal conformities, one of which normally receives the wrench head and the other the nut or fitting, are relatively angularly displaced, in the example shown, to the. maximum extent.

A feature of particular advantage when the socket or tool is for use in situations of difllcult access to a nut or fitting, is the tapered lower body portion which may be referred to as a skirt,

3 and which is indicated at 22 (Fig. 2). This taper is preferably imparted entirely to the external part of the wall of the socket, and is of particular advantage in a side-open construction such as the present, in assuring maximum rigidity and resistance to deformation particularly under twisting stresses, in comparison with the more usual standard sockets formed on stepped diameters.

A reference to Fig, 5 shows an application of the present tool to a nut N located at a depth in a recess R, of a metal body MB, and reveals the virtual impossibility of access to the nut with wrenches of conventional type. In situations of this kind, the tapered skirt portion 22 will, under conditions of close fit, tend to center the socket as it is applied to the nut or other fitting, and greatly facilitate application of the socket to the nut or the like.

Typical advantageous applications of a tool of the present type are found in hydraulic brake systems for vehicles, particularly automotive brake systems, also in refrigerating assemblies in which the nut N would appear as the male hexagon portion of a brass fitting and the element extending therefrom usually a copper tube indicated at CT. The speed and adaptability of the present tool to service of this kind will be apparent when it is seen that the side opening or slot l 6 is so dimensioned as to receive any tubing, bolt or rod which would normally be connected into a fitting of the size to be engaged by the seat M. In such case the socket is laterally applied over the tubing, then brought down over the nut or fitting, a wrench W of selected type applied to the external hexagonal portion of the socket and rotated in the direction indicated for threading or unthreading the nut or fitting.

The term polygonal as employed in the present description and claims should be taken in the broadest possible sense, inasmuch as the principles of the invention are adaptable not only to hexagon threaded elements but those characterized by differing numbers of faces and apices including where desired, a fitting or nut of square external shape.

In order to provide a requisite length of socket it is preferred that the overall length thereof be at least twice the maximum cross dimension of the bore within the socket, this relation prevailing substantially in the example shown.

Inasmuch as, in the external polygonal seat formed by faces 20 and partial faces 2|, it has proven advantageous to preserve at least a portion of all such faces for Wrench jaw engagement, it will now appear that this result has been attained, yet providing a side opening of a width requisite to permit lateral application over tubing, bolt or rod elements of any diameters which normally would be coupled to a nut or fitting of a size to be actuated by seat l4.

Similarly, it will now appear that in an internal hexagon conformity the portions thereof desirable to be preserved in maximum number, are

the internal apices such as H. In a standard socket element of full annular section, such apices are provided. In the present construction, in spite of the slot and with the advantages noted, five such apical portions are retained, as a result of which experience has shown that slippage about the nut or fitting is fully avoided, so long as the socket is applied over a nut or fitting of at least approximately conforming size. It will design fully realizes each'of the several objectives accordingly appear that the socket of the present above recited, and others implied from the description.

Although the invention has been specified by a particularized reference to the various features of a selected example, the detail of description should be understood in an instructive rather than a limiting sense, numerous changes being possible within the scope of the claims hereunto appended.

I claim as my invention:

1. An open-side metal socket particularly adapted for actuation of a recessed nut, the socket being provided with an axial end to end bore, the socket being further provided with a heavy-wall head formed with an external polygonal conformity at one end, and provided with a female polygonal conformity just inwardly of its opposite end and within the bore, the material of the socket being of a gradually reduced thickness from the region of the external conformity on the head, through to the opposite end of the socket, the socket being provided with a full length lateral opening of a width and so located as only partially to interrupt one of the faces of the external polygonal conformity, and further so located and dimensioned as to preclude no more than one of the apical portions of said internal polygonal conformity.

2. A one-piece socket formed of metal stock and provided with a through passage or bore axially of the socket, the bore being open at both ends, an external hexagonal wrench-receiving conformity located substantially beyond a transverse median through the socket, the wall of the socket being of a substantial thickness throughout the region of said hexagon conformity, and of a diminishing wall thickness such that the socket is externally tapered from said median gradually to the end opposite said external conformity, thus resulting in a centering portion or skirt, the length of the socket approximating twice the greatest transverse dimension of the bore; the socket further formed to provide an internal hexagon-a1 conformity extended inwardly of the reduced end of the socket, the socket being formed to provide a full length longitudinal opening directed into said bore, said opening being of a, width appreciably less than the width of one of the faces of said external conformity and so located as to leave uninterrupted, all but one of the last said faces; the internal hexagonal conformity being angularly staggered with respect to said external conformity, and said side opening being of such dimension and so located as to leave uninterrupted thereby, all but one of the apical portions of said internal conformity.

WALTER VIETS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 611,564 Crump Sept. 27, 1898 798,325 Daddysman, Jr Aug. 29, 1905 1,224,875 Zarth May 1, 1917 1,312,456 Saylor Aug, 5, 1919 1,434,401 Mueller Nov. '7, 1922 1,658,886 Dickey Feb. 14, 1928 2,106,712 Bertrand Feb. 1, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 568,402 France Dec. 21, 1923 

